Victoria Multifaith Society

Minutes – General Meeting

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007, at the Interfaith Chapel, UVic

Present – Board: Eshu Martin, Karima Ramji, Sheila Flood, Louis Sutker, Beth Gibson (for Dale Perkins)

Members: Suresh and Kathy Basrur, Christine Johnston, M. Younas Mirza, Jennie Preuss, Mark Bedford, Don Fouracre, Nancy Watters

Opening Meditation

Ven. Eshu Martin chaired the meeting, which began with a chant led by Rabbi Louis Sutker, and a round of introductions.

Business

The Chair delivered a report by the Board as follows:

· We have had several events now – Hindu Divali in October, the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh in November, Hanukkah in December, Epiphany in January. Upcoming: Navroz (New Year) in March.

· We continue to work on the website – we now have a calendar of events for the region that members can send notices to, and hope to have book lists, Faith links, etc.

· The Multifaith Book club is starting Tuesday, Feb. 27, with 12 participants.

Brainstorming

Louis Sutker facilitated a discussion of “Where do we want the Multifaith Society to go? Do we want to have many services offered?” To start, some ideas were given from the Board:

§ Having general meetings focused on themes or projects, with speakers invited to give keynote presentations on ethical or moral issues of general interest such as the role of women, corporate capitalism, homelessness, gambling etc.;

§ separating out the learning circle into meetings in themselves;

§ having a variety of projects each with a project co-ordinator outside the Board;

§ having one large project to put our energy into;

§ combining our AGM with a multifaith conference.

Those present came up with many ideas (grouped here according to similarity):

Services

· publish a directory of Faith groups and where they meet

· have a Speaker’s Bureau

· build a Lending library

· distribute the multifaith calendar

Events

· evenings where Faith groups present their philosophies and share food

· symposium where different groups discuss approaches to healing

· interfaith film festival

· interfaith songfest or chantfest

· panel discussion on topics of interest such as marriage, for TV

· World Religion Day celebration

· Multifaith conference

· Interfaith contest

· Interfaith dance or poetry evening

· Interfaith challenge e.g. fundraiser such as World Partnership Walk

· Workshop on Golden Rule, or Virtues

· interfaith walk downtown, perhaps connected with service to homeless

· interfaith walk beginning with prayer

Programs

· radio call-in show

· learning circles with multifaith teachings on specific themes

· interfaith sports like bowling, softball or curling

· publicity program on importance of multifaith

· multifaith children’s program

· interfaith groups in high schools

· forums on current issues, perhaps focused on youth

There were a couple of recommendations also:

Ø to have wider email communications to groups to publicize events

Ø to have a mission statement

The facilitator asked which of the above ideas would be the simplest to implement, to begin. Some suggestions were:

o to approach an existing children’s program such as the Bahá’í classes at Camosun college with the possibility of making it multifaith

o to offer multifaith speakers to existing children’s programs

o to aid in the distribution of the multifaith calendar

o to have learning circles

o to increase the email list by having that option on our website; there could also be a “forward to friend” option

There was general consensus that the simplest idea to implement would probably be the Speaker’s Bureau, with each community recommending speakers, perhaps indicating specific areas of expertise and the specific denomination or group represented. These names would be posted on the website, and could also be publicized to schools.

It was decided to send the above ideas to our general membership, asking for offers to begin follow up on any program, service or event. Any proposals would be welcome by the Board.

As a closing prayer, short quotes with uplifting, unifying words were read from a variety of Holy Scriptures.

Submitted by S. Flood, Secretary

Victoria Multifaith Society Board